February 24, 2021

CDC Endorsement Information for City Council and School Board Candidates

The Cincinnati Democratic Committee, made up of all Precinct Executives in the city, is organizing for our city and school elections this year. 

Over the past several years, the Hamilton County Democratic Party has worked hard to run coordinated campaigns each cycle to elect a slate of candidates for both city and county offices. 

Endorsed candidates are expected to support the coordinated campaign financially, participating in coordinated paid advertising, GOTV activities and organizing your campaign’s volunteers for election day poll coverage to distribute the slate card. 

The endorsement process will begin with the selection of the nominating committees in mid/late March. There will be two separate nominating committees: one for School Board and one for City Council. Candidate interviews will occur in April/May.  The CDC membership will vote on the nominating committees’ recommendations in May, unless the process concludes earlier than expected.  The timing will vary based on the number of candidates that wish to be considered, time for the completion of questionnaires and scheduling interviews.  

CANDIDATES: Please review this important information: 

• If you will seek the Democratic Party’s endorsement, please send your candidate contact information to: cdc@hamiltoncountydems.org. 

• Candidates must have signatures turned in and verified by the Hamilton County Board of Election staff before their endorsement interview to be considered for endorsement.  

• To ensure our endorsed candidates are not part of another political party’s slate, which could promote candidates the Democratic Party has not had an opportunity to interview, vet and endorse, we will not endorse candidates who have been endorsed by another political party. (i.e. The Republican party, Charter Party, Green Party or any other political party operating in the City of Cincinnati.) Democratic Party endorsed candidates will participate in our coordinated campaign effort to elect our slate. It will confuse voters if our endorsed candidates are also part of another political party’s slate.  
• The candidate questionnaires will be distributed in April. Candidates will need to return questionnaires by the deadline to be considered for an interview. We expect to schedule candidate interviews in late April/early May. The schedule for this process, once finalized, will be posted on our website, emailed to the CDC and HCDP email list, sent to media and announced on HCDP Facebook and Twitter pages.

As in previous election cycles, we pledge a fair and transparent process as we consider endorsements. We look forward to a strong coordinated campaign to be sure we elect Democrats to our city and school board leadership.